If instead, we respond to such pressure or force by first relaxing the muscles and making use of correct structure to maintain the position under stress, it is possible to transmit that pressure through the bones and sinews, as opposed to the muscles, and redirect that force into the ground, avoiding the need for muscular strength.
Sifu David Peterson

Sifu David Peterson (well-known first-generation student of Wong Shun Leung) has published another excellent article in Eric Lilleør’s Wing Chun Illustrated. This one is called “Structure and Relaxation: The ‘Dynamic Duo.'”

“When I’m rolling, I’m always going towards his core and he’s going towards mine, because it I let go, he hits me …
Chi Sau is only a training drill – not fighting. But it gives me an angle of attack to hit my person.”
Sifu John Smith

Another short but sweet demo/instructional video from Sisuk John Smith (Wong Shun Leung 1st generation student) out of Australia.

“There were also no attacks to the eyes, throat or groin, but everything else could be applied. Also if there was excessive blood loss, then the injured fighter would be announced as the loser.”
Yuen Yim Keung

After the untimely death of the Great Master Wong Shun Leung, an enormous hole has been left, as the guidence of the fatherly figure is no longer there. There was an air of sadness that affected myself as I walked in to the Ving Tsun ameteur atheletic association headquarters located in the district known as Prince Edward in Hong Kong recently. One of the many who is attempting to fill this void is one of Sifu Wong Shun Leung’s more senior student by the name of Yuen Yim Keung.

Yuen Yim Keung was one of Wong Sifu’s more gifted fighters, he learnt the hard and long way, so much so that he spent more than eight years learning the Baat Jaam Do (Ving Tsun’s famous Knife form). This was to lay a strong foundation in his own mind.
He is a very articulate teacher, giving his utmost attention to his students, in the form of advice and correcting technique. Here is an insight into one man’s perspective of how Ving Tsun should be performed

John Smith How did you get involved with Ving Tsun?

Yuen Yim Keung Initially, I was a second-dan black belt in Goju Kai.
At night school, my English teacher, who knew I had a passion for Martial Arts,
introduced me to a friend of a friend who was a senior student of Leung Sheung
(who incidentally was Yip Man’s first Hong Kong student). This gentleman
noted that my legwork was good but my hand techniques needed
considerable attention. At first, I wanted to learn Ving Tsun from him,
but he said it would be better for me to be taught by a much better
teacher/fighter called Wong Shun Leung. At this time, Wong Shun
Leung would not take any person who had been practicing another
Martial Art before, but after intense negotiation Wong Sifu relented and I
became his student.

John Smith How many years ago was this, and who were your Sihing (seniors)?

Yuen Yim Keung I commenced training in 1970. Lam Man Hog (Gary Lam)
who is now teaching in the United States of America and Cheuk Hing Chuen, who was the most outstanding student according to Master Wong Shun Leung.
Cheuk Hing Chuen has actually become a Buddhist monk and does not teach any
more due to his religious beliefs.

John Smith What was training like in those early days?

Yuen Yim Keung The teaching was very slow, but it was taken much more
seriously than nowadays. Siu Nim Tau (young idea form), which is the first form of Ving Tsun to learn, took about two (2) months to complete. The basics were really drilled in initially. Wong Shun Leung used to give more attention to the students who used to go out and fight. They therefore took their fighting more seriously and therefore they were taught more.

John SmithIt has long been known that Wong Sifu was an excellent fighterand used to relish the chance of proving his skills in the Bei Mo (challenge fights), where he was never beaten. But as I understand he used to encourage his students to do the same thing. What type of preparations where taken before such challenge fights?

Yuen Yim Keung None. As these fights were taken completely ad hoc. All of
these fights were illegal and if the police found out, there would always be big
trouble.

Ko Kin is one of the late great Wong Shun Leung`s early students. This interview by Sifu John Smith was taken during the a visit to Hong Kong in 1998, not long after the untimely passing of Wong Sifu.

#

Ko Kin runs a small, but very busy school in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. This interview gives an insight as to how one man believes Ving Tsun (Wing Chun) to be performed.

John Smith

Tell me how you got involved with Wong Shun Leung, Ving Tsun.

Ko Kin

I was introduced to Sifu Wong Shun Leung by another student called Wan Kam Leung more than thirty (30) years ago. Wong Sifu was just starting to teach then and his hand techniques were devastating, as he was constantly testing them against other martial artists in many of his Bei Mo (Challenge fights) where he was never defeated.

Wong Sifu authorised me many years ago to teach at the Ving Tsun Athletic Association, but now I teach in Wan Chai. I used not to teach Ving Tsun so openly but some friends of mine who are teachers in other martial arts, think that it is a pity that I was not teaching to the public as they all agreed that my hand technique was very effective.

John Smith

What attracted you to Ving Tsun?

Ko Kin

As compared to other styles of Kung Fu it is more effective in a shorter period of time by the very nature of the use of Chi Sau (sticking hands). When trained properly this drill enables one to automatically flow on from one technique into another with out any interruption to the sequence of attack.

I heard that Ip Man felt he peaked as a fighter when he was 50 years old.

The reason why he peaked then is interesting for our approach to fighting.

When you are young, you can muscle things and make them work. This is why the fighters in the UFC are all young men. They are take a bunch of unrelated disciplines (wrestling, boxing, muay thai, ju jitsu) and make them work together through the sheer force of their youth and conditioning.

Male muscular strength peaks around 35. I think endurance peaks much earlier. As you age and lose physical strength, as a fighter, you are forced to replace that declining youthful strength with skill in the form of structure and other qualities. Skill has to take the place of muscle.

There is a laundry list of skills which make up a good fighting system: structure, timing, proper organization of the hands, aggression, forward pressure, turning, stable footwork, and so on. As you develop these, you can not only keep up with the young fighters who still have their youthful powers, you can get ahead of them. You can do things that seem like magic to people who haven’t developed them yet.

These capabilities can allow you to dominate the kids who still have their youthful flexibility and muscle power but don’t have the skills yet.

Martial prowess is a race between knowledge and age. A trained 60 year old may beat an untrained 25 year old.

Maybe.

Ip Man’s story is interesting to me because it underlines the difference between training like a UFC fighter and training in a complete system like Wing Chun.

You need to train structure and timing and the more subtle capacities and refuse to give in to your impulse to muscle fighting situations. If you muscle it, that will work now, but not later, when your body ages.

The whole point of learning a system like Wing Chun is that if you learn the refinements, like structure and timing and positioning and so on, it will still work when you are old, Even when you are very old. Even after you have passed your peak, you may be competitive against much younger fighters.

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Hi. I'm Steve, a professional researcher. I started learning Wing Chun Kung Fu in 2000. Since then, I've trained with some of the best Wing Chun teachers in the world (including Greg LeBlanc and Gary Lam) and done hundreds of hours of research into fight science. This website contains the best of what I've learned. Contact: [email protected]